...braggin', er... slander... if you can do it, er... it's the truth...

British Columbia has thrown up the odd chiselling premier, Atlantic Canada is famously steeped in patronage, but there is no comparison to the kind of octopussalindustry-union-mob-partyconfiguration lurking just below the surface of politics in Quebec.

And, hells bells... if they can run Metropolitan Toronto according to EU dictates... what's up with France?

The ultimatum from Brussels, in a letter to the French government from the European commission, upped the ante in the ferocious row over France's treatment of immigrant Gypsies, a dispute that hijacked a recent EU summit and saw insults traded over the second world war.

"France is not applying European law as it should," said Viviane Reding, the commissioner for justice and fundamental rights who sparked one of the worst rows in the EU for years this month.

The victim was rushed to St. Michael's Hospital but died of his injuries. He was later identified by his friend Antonius Clarke as 26-year-old Eric Osawe. Osawe had spent some time in jail after high school, but was trying to clean up his act.

Geez... from the sounds of things... he wasn't trying all that hard...

Court records show Osawe was convicted of assault in 2004, for which he was given a suspended sentence and one-year probation. Last September, he was convicted of possession of a controlled substance and possession of stolen property. He spent a short time in jail and again, was given one-year probation.

Another man was seen being led from the building in handcuffs after the shooting. Police later identified the man as Ebony Osawe, 23 — Eric's younger brother. Ebony Osawe has been charged with possession of a restricted firearm with ammunition.

I gotta say, if that's "cleaning up your act"... I'd sure hate to see these two when they're out on a tear.

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UPDATE: Cop now facing charges

A Toronto cop is now charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of a 26-year-old man during a raid in Etobicoke two months ago.

Const. David Cavanagh faces a manslaughter charge and is expected to appear in a College Park courtroom on Jan. 6, 2011.

The CIA has launched at least 20 drone strikes so far this month in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a lawless region neighboring Afghanistan. That is the highest monthly total in the past six years, according to a tally by the New America Foundation think tank.

Separately, Pakistan on Monday protested NATO helicopter strikes that killed more than 70 militants, saying the attacks breached its air space. NATO said it attacked in self defense.

Michael Ignatieff is reversing his support for a wide range of enhancements to Employment Insurance benefits, saying they are too expensive and are no longer required.

The Liberal Leader attempted to provoke a federal election around this time last year over some of the very reforms that are coming to a vote Wednesday in the House of Commons, but he now says he no longer supports them.

Ms. Scott said that prostitutes will begin pressing immediately for a regulation regime that includes workers’ compensation, health standards and inclusion in the country’s income-tax scheme.

Now, call me skeptical... but I'm thinkin'... you're giving 20 dollar blowjobs to unwashed strangers in dark back alleys for your next hit on Satan's glass pipe... you might wanna try fit in a little rehab before you go for that listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Or declare war on the Canadian government...

"This was a big bite out of the heart of government. They are going to feel this one. I don’t know what this means now; whether or not we will see five-storey brothels like the ones in Germany."

Yeah... we can only hope, huh?

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RELATED: What do non-prostitutes say?

“There’s a reason why those laws are in place,” York Regional Police vice Det.-Sgt. Henry Deruiter said. “If you’ve got a pimp that’s operating and has control and exercises control over these girls the way that they do, of course they’re important charges.

We want to get them before the courts and prosecute themto the fullest.”

Retired Toronto Police detective Dave Perry, who locked up countless pimps, said striking down the laws “is like handing out licences to pimps.”

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"It will be interesting, won't it? I mean, just a few weeks ago, the left was trumpeting the fact that the cops LOVED the gun registry."

"Now, with cops not exactly enamoured of the idea of legalizing whores, will the left still make us try to believe they care what cops think, or throw them under the bus. Again."

-- Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says -- Report says nonbelievers know more, on average, about religion than most faithful. Jews and Mormons also score high on the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey.

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University and author of "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn't," served as an advisor on the survey.

"I think in general the survey confirms what I argued in the book, which is that we know almost nothing about our own religions and even less about the religions of other people."

Google reports that the service has been blocked in at least 17 countries since 2007. China, for example, has blocked YouTube since March of last year after a video appeared on the site showing Chinese police beating Tibetans in Lhasa in 2008.

Once researchers start poring through the data, they will be able to track more precisely governments’ efforts to clamp down on information.

"We have seen an increase in celebs seeking their own permits. They can get their own security, but with the internet, it is much easier to find people. They don't want to find someoneon their lawn at five in the morning."

-- SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. -- Ten people nabbed last summer in a drug sweep in this northern Ontario city walked free Monday on the first day of what was to be a two-week trial.

Judge Andrew Buttazzoni dismissed trafficking charges against the nine men and one woman after he refused to grant the Crown an adjournment., requested because an out-of-town undercover police officer wasn't available to testify because he's getting married.

And is Hogtown any better?

The mother of Bailey Zaveda rushed from court Monday, overcome with emotion as an eyewitness described discovering her daughter wounded after being shot outside the Duke of York tavern.

Helen Deir was listening to Derek Hall recall the hail of bullets that killed the 23-year-old Zaveda on Oct. 25, 2008. Zaveda was re-entering the Queen St. E. bar in front of Hall when she was killed.

Hall said he felt so threatened by the shooting and events afterward that he fled Toronto. He moved to a city three hours away, leaving behind his girlfriend and a good job, because he feared reprisals for speaking to police.

Only in Canada, you say?

**********

UPDATE: In other "crime is falling" news

-- OTTAWA -- More than one-quarter of Canadians over the age of 15 have been victims of crime, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

According the 2009 General Social Survey, 27 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and over reported being victimized by crime in the previous 12 months, the federal agency reported Tuesday.

About six per cent of the population at least 15 years of age — or about 1.6 million people — reported being subjected to violent crime.

Victim rates also varied among specific groups in the country, the report said, noting that Aboriginal residents were twice as likely to report being victimized than non-Aboriginal Canadians.

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LAST WORD: Yeah... I'm shocked

A judge has granted bail to one off the three Ontario suspects charged with terrorism offences during last month's RCMP busts.

27 September 2010

In presenting his full financial blueprint Monday, the former deputy premier said he was “confident” his old colleagues at the province would come through with a long-term funding deal for the Toronto Transit Commission.

Or maybe, Barry... you could just skip the middleman entirely... and put cameras in our bedrooms...

Might this help explain the Obama administration's weak support for net neutrality? Next year, Obama plans to submit a bill to Congress that will seek to make it legal for the government to wiretap online communications — including encrypted BlackBerry email, Facebook, and Skype.

Hope, change and... "Come home Lavrenti Beria... all is forgiven."

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RELATED: Just another ordinary Joe

President Obama said Monday that his daughters could not get the same level of education from D.C. public schools that they receive at the elite private school they attend.

It's like somebody published pornographic pictures of Elmer the Safety Elephant...

Veteran Quebec secessionist Gilles Rhéaume says that the Maclean’s article is only the latest chapter in the “history of francophobiain Canada.”

And he says likens the use of the image of Bonhomme Carnaval in this way to bannering the image of “the Queen of England made up as a prostitute” across the front page of all newspapers and television news bulletins.

Uh, Gilles... nobody but you and your fellow Quebeckers is losing their minds over an "alleged" insult to a "pretend" snowman. What... you're worried that your team mascot is gonna go put his head in an oven?

Just spitballin' here... but maybe somebody would like to actually address the stuff about corruption?

"I pray that this event ends global warming, er... the Israeli-Palestine conflict... the same way that Live Aid ended world hunger." -- Well, of course, it's so obvious... why didn't anyone think of this one before... the healing power of comic books...

"The superhero's appearance hasn't been finalized, but he definitely will be a Muslim boy in a wheelchair. An early sketch shows a boy who lost his legs in a landmine accident and later becomes the Silver Scorpion after discovering he has the power to control metal with his mind."

Holy Hamas... if this guy can control metal... maybe he help build a few water treatment plants...

The sea around Gaza is heavily polluted with at least 60 million litresof raw and partially treated sewage being pumped into it every day.

Yeah, I know... I guess that's not as exciting as saving the world, huh?

The Open Hands Initiative was launched last November to respond to Obama's offer to the Muslim world in his inaugural address to “extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

Geez... I dunno, Barry.

Just spitballin' here... but I'm thinkin', it actually might be more important to... "unclench your mind".

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UPDATE: In other "comic book" news...

"An event occurred, and under the pretext of that event, two countries were invaded and up to now, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed as a result."

For myself, I'm way less concerned about a one-off deal designed to show off Canada to the G20 and G8 contingents... than, say... the 12 billion dollars that we pound down the black hole of the aboriginal reservation system every single freakin' year... to absolutely no effect, I might add.

Or the fact that the left-leaning factions in this great country are willing to piss away 2 billion taxpayer dollars pretending that making life difficult for perfectly law-abiding farmers, duck hunters and skeet shooters... will in any way, shape or form affect inner-city urban handgun crime.

Whatever happened to "One People, One Law?"

You wanna know what really pisses me off? Warehousing irredeemable scumbags like Clifford Olson or Paul Bernardo for the rest of their natural lives. My Conservative Party would bring back the noose.

In any case, my friend... you really think Stephen Harper was running around choosing fabrics and individual projects for this shindig? You think he personally told the various police forces how to set up security?

I think it's way more complicated than that.

Let's not forget there is a vast, securely entrenched bureaucracy in this country that pulls many of the levers that incinerate our tax dollars.

Don't even get me started on the Senate... a completely partisan payoff for political cronies of the ruling faction. You might as well call it "Bagman U". But hey... which party is actually talking about Senate reform? I'll give you a hint... it doesn't start with "L".

The Conservative Party, like any other political organisation, has it's own problems... but it's certainly disingenuous to equate Jean Charest's"alleged"tampering with the judicial process to money spent on the G20 & G8 summits.

Anyway... in the interest of fairness... please forward me the link to your blog or website and I will post it right here. Why just be an anonymous troll when you can strike a blow for the revolution?

I await your reply.

**********

UPDATE: A reader replies... 27/09/10

Of course, not to supply the link to his blog or website... but to whinge about what a meanie (I've toned down his actual rant) I am.

Most government abuse of power is practiced openly, and much of it is heartily approved by The Washington Post editorial board and other such proponents of the good and the fair.

But any time the government treats one person differently than another because of the group to which that person belongs - whether it's a group of rich, special-interest tax dodgers or a group of impoverished, minority job-seekers - individual equality is lessened and freedom is diminished.

Any time the government gives away goods and services - even if it gives them away to all people equally - individual dependence is increased and freedom is diminished.

Any time the government makes rules about people's behavior when that behavior does not occasion real and provable harm to others - telling you to buckle your seat belt or forbidding you to publish pornography on the Internet - respect for the individual is reduced and freedom is diminished.

...of changing their lives in a fundamental way right now. It's inchoate, mostly, this urge, and is demonstrated mostly by threatening to hoard gold, Spam, and bullets on Internet message boards at two AM, or by watching Ice Road Truckers on The History Channel, then falling asleepin your recliner and going to work the next morning.

24 September 2010

How big do your balls have to be... to walk into a court of law and start quoting the "unwritten rules"...Of course, we're talking about a guy who is so Gumby-like flexible... he could comfortably spiral from one side of the political spectrum to it's distant & diametrically opposed ass-end.

According to the lawyer of former justice minister Marc Bellemare, whose allegations of judge-rigging by Liberal Party fundraisers led to the inquiry, the Premier’s involvement constituted a breach of the confidential process that must be followed in nominating a judge.

“The rules clearly say that the names of the candidates, their resumes and personal information must remain confidential. The information is kept by the co-ordinator of the selection committee,” Jean-François Bertrand said.

.."If it saves just one life"...For the love of gawd... when are Jack and Iggy gonna bring in more stringent controls on those dastardly Blackberries -- and I'm not just talking about a stupid ticket...

“Distracted deaths as a share of all road fatalities increased from 10.9 per cent to 15.8 per cent from 1999 to 2008, and much of the increase occurred after 2005,” they wrote.

“In 2008, approximately 1 in 6 fatal vehicle collisions resulted from a driver being distracted while driving,” the report said. It found 5,870 people died in accidents attributed to distracted driving.

Obviously, folks... cell phones have killed way more people than my rifles ever will... but I haven't heard a peep outta the Opposition Coalition about dealing with this deadly epidemic.

Let's start with a Cellphone Safety Course... and an ironclad rule that after you get your Telephone Acquisition Certificate these dangerous devices only be transported in the locked trunk of your vehicle.

And again, obviously... we must have a National Communications Devices Registry... to ensure that our Police Forces know what they're walking into every time they do a traffic stop.

Time to beef up the punishments too. In future, anyone caught texting while driving will face a lifetime ban on phone ownership.

"Why are there so many fans of pornographyin Indonesia?" asks Juniwati Masjchun Sofwan, head of the Indonesian Commission to Eradicate Pornography. "Because there has been a lack of control since the press and society found new freedom in the 10 years since Reformasi."

"There is no sex education in the public schools or the Muslim boarding schools known as pesantren," explains Guntur Romli, who writes on sexuality and Islam and studied at Al Azhar in Cairo. "All that is taught is what is halal or haram, and that is the end of the discussion."

"There was also 'excrement in places it shouldn't be', thought to be a result of labourers relieving themselves in the homes, while Scottish officials are reported to have photographed a stray dog defecating on a bed."

New Zealand became the latest country to defer travel for its team, which was scheduled to reach Delhi on Sunday. Like Scotland and Canada, which have also postponed travel, New Zealand cited hygiene and safety concerns.

-- NYC -- "Who would have thought that six weeks before a cliffhanger election, President Obama would have to reach down to the D list to fill a room to listen to him?" she writes.

Yes, many thought it was a joke when they were sent an email that tickets to Obama's general reception at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York were on "fire sale" for only $100, down from the original $500 asking price.

“Yes, this is not normal for you,” Mrs. Rafaat said in sometimes imperfect English. “And I know it’s very hard for you to believe why one mother is doing these things to their youngest daughter.

But I want to say for you, that some things are happening in Afghanistan that are really not imaginable for you as a Western people.”

Uh, lady... the scary thing here is... this playing dress-up thing is actually one of the least abnormal things you folks do.

If she is not repentant, he should beat her, but there are rules to the beating. It is forbidden to beat her in the face or make her ugly. When you beat her, you must not curse her. Islam forbids this.

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RELATED: Oh, c'mon Robespierre...

...what part of... "cut off their freakin' infidel heads"... are you just not getting?

"That all of his MPs were in their seats and stood with him on issue of the gun registry – a Liberal legacy – marked an important turning point for Mr. Ignatieff who has had to contend with divided loyalties among those who sit in the benches behind him."

Seriously... that's the new standard for party unity & loyalty?

You show up for a whipped vote?

Yikers.

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RELATED: Professor Iggy's "big win"

Yeah... because spending 2 billion taxpayer dollars to chase after farmers, duck hunters and skeet shooters is really gonna take a bite out of urban handgun mayhem...

On the plus side... after you've ripped off a half-dozen hand-punishing rounds that tear chunks of masonry out of surrounding buildings, you can beat your intended target to death with it.

-- NEW DELHI -- Skepticism about India’s preparedness for the Commonwealth Games deepened Tuesday after a partly constructed footbridge collapsed outside the main arena for competition, injuring dozens.

“This will not affect the games,” said Raj Kumar Chauhan, a Delhi minister for development, who spoke at the scene. “We can put the bridge up again, or make a new one.”

Right Raj... no biggie. Or maybe you could ferry people across the river on bullocks... and call it a cross-cultural adventure.

Unfortunately, that's not the only problem here...

The village is “uninhabitable,” the Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive, Mike Hooper, told the local television channel CNN-IBN on Tuesday. “There is dust everywhere,” he said. “The flats are dirty and filthy. Toilets are unclean.”

“I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now,” said Velma Hart at President Obama's economic town hall in Washington D.C. Monday.

Oh, c'mon... she's just some rabble-rousing tea-partier... right?

Hart is the chief financial officer of AMVETS, a veterans’ organization, and her husband is a facilities administrator at the Verizon Center in Washington.

Asked if Summers represents a disconnect with the president’s base, Jackson replied, “The core of them—Summers, Geithner — these guys come out of the Wall Street, Harvard community, and their point of view is conditioned by their privileges and their point of view is conditioned by their experiences."

"Their point of view is from the top down. They see the world differently.”

As regular readers may have noticed of late, there has been an exponential increase in troll activity. It's something that anyone who blogs has to deal with... part of the job description if you will... but I think it's time to implement comment moderation.

I came to this decision reluctantly... and only after running some of the recent erratic... and increasingly pornographic commentary past a psychologist friend.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. A special thanks to all the folks who wrote to share their thoughts about the "Nonny" situation.

I look forward to the next 4 years.

**********

POSTSCRIPT:Seven, er... one stages... of troll grief

So it's been a while since I initiated comment moderation and... not surprisingly... Nonny hasn't given up the ghost. Every night, without fail, he shows up to breathlessly share his innermost desires.

These, unfortunately... consist largely of nonsensical suggestions involving sexual relations with various members of the animal kingdom, or homicidal fantasies...

"If it was me firebombing you, you would not have a chance at a second thought, because as soon as you exited the building, well, the whole idea of the firebomb was to flush the skunk (you) out and get you into um, range."Posted by liberal supporter to halls of macadamia at 10:18 PM, January 24, 2011

Apparently, comment moderation has been a freeing experience for Nonny as well...

"Someone living in obscurity in butt fuck nowhere, has a lot to tell all the folks living in butt fuck nowhere too."Posted by Anonymous to halls of macadamia at 9:00 PM, February 25, 2011

Yup... an endless supply of postcards from the compassionate, intellectual left.

A 22-year-old Lebanese medical student who regards Sept. 11 as a "beautiful day" is in custody after placing a backpack containing what he thought was an explosive device into a Wrigleyville trash can, federal authorities said Monday.

Sami Samir Hassoun, of the 4700 block of North Kedzie, has been charged with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Chicago office said.

"I will f*** Chicago. I will shake Chicago," the criminal complaint quotes Hassoun as saying.

Michael Ignatieff first offended Ukrainians around the world in his 1994 book Blood and Belonging, where he talked in derogatory terms about that country’s independence “conjuring up images of embroidered peasant shirts, the nasal whine of ethnic instruments, phony cossacks in cloaks and boots, nasty anti-Semites.”

Calling himself a “Great Russian” he remarked on his disdain for “these little Russians”.

"I don't want to litter the slopes with bodies. There may be people who I've left behind who feel that I was ruthless, and if they feel that, then all I can say is — I wouldn't apologize — all I could say is, I don't want to hurt people."

"One simple question. Why can't the truly bad teachers be fired? And there are truly bad teachers - why do they have jobs until they retire?"

I'm guessing that most of us had at least one totally unsuitable teacher over the course of our primary, secondary or post-secondary education.

And no... I'm not talking about the hardass from South Africa who threw chalkboard erasers and lifted misbehaving students up by their sideburns.

That sonuvabitch could teach.

I'm talking about the high school history geek who came back from sabbatical after getting his Ph.D... who could be distracted for the entire duration of the class simply by asking questions about his pet obsessions.

...these guys just missed a really, really powerful campaign slogan... I like that ol' Rocco has a sense of humour and is "incredibly proud of his Italian heritage"... I just think he didn't take it far enough, 'cos with a mug like that, he could've gone with...

"Rocco Rossi: he'll make sure the trains run on time"...

I'm not so sure though... he's sending the right message about fiscal responsibility...

I don't get it... why exactly are Canadians so quick to just "duck & cover"?

-- ffof -- Look at Canadian Indians or whatever they're called this week. One dead guy in Oka, a few imaginary smallpox blankets, and they get to take over whole towns at gunpoint.

And then we have Quebeckers: blow up a few mailboxes, kidnap one guy and kill one other, and you get French on every cereal box, and billions in ransom money transfer payments until the end of time.

But, sadly... it's not just Canadians...

So Obama and Breyer are now the “good cop” to the crazies’ "bad cop". Ooh, no, you can’t say anything about Islam, because my friend here gets a little excitable, and you really don’t want to get him worked up.

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RELATED: But is the worm turning?

"All they seem to care about is their visceral conviction that Torontohas been wrecked by the sort of big-spending, union-coddling lefties whom Ford rails against."

Officers found Debassige in the park drunk, singing and wielding a knife. Debassige refused repeated calls to drop the weapon and came toward the officers "while wielding the knife in a threatening posture," said the SIU news release.